While a resident at Sterling House, an assisted living facility, Frances Shelley allegedly caught her leg in the footboard of her bed and was found by Sterling House staff six to eight hours later hanging from the footboard upside down. Ms. Shelley's leg was subsequently amputated. Following her death, her executor brought suit, and in the course of discovery requested records of the employees who had cared for Ms. Shelley to determine whether the facility had followed adequate training, supervision and hiring practices. The executor agreed to have any of the employees' personal information redacted. The assisted living facility refused to provide the records, arguing that they were protected from disclosure under the privacy provision of the Florida Constitution. The trial court ordered that the records be provided, and Sterling House appealed.
The Supreme Court of Florida rules that the assisted living facility lacks standing to challenge discovery by asserting its employees' constitutional privacy rights. But the court also rules that employees who may have a privacy interest in information contained in their personnel files may assert their privacy rights as intervenors in the litigation, and, whether or not the employees have intervened, the trial court should consider the employees' privacy concerns in ruling on relevancy objections.
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